08/14/18 08/14/18 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is democracy y now! >> a a l of support and a aot of ank you d a lot pyer d a lot verythin, st geing ener from a t of ople thai don't even kw. i am glato be he to hp wi the sittion after lenened abt roununp and yphosate the cae is w bigger an me, so hopefly this ing will

start to g the atttion tha it needs so folks can make a good choice. amy: $289 million. that is the amount of the historic verdict against monsanto in the case of a school groundskeeper who developed cancer after using its weed killer roundup. we will speak with the lead lawyer in the case and with carey gillam, author of "whitewash: the story of a weed killer, cancer and t corruptition of sciencnce." then t to to yemen, , where a forl beining held schoolchildren after a u.s. -backed saudi led airstrike on a school bus. >> i was one of the first people on the scene. as i was nursing people, i lifted a body and found it was ahmed's face. he was my son. amy: we will also lolook at in thisis is you to press inveigigation ththat found the u.s.-backed saudi-led cocoalitin

has repeatedly cut secret deals with al qaeda in yemen, even paying its fighters to retreat from towns or join the coalalition. >> the ameriricans know everythg and momore about what we know. they k knew about thee mediatio, step-by-step, one by one, and they were turning a blind eye. amy: all that and more, coming up. wewelcome to demococracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. fears of a new global economomic crisis are growing after the collapse of turkey's currency. so far this year turkey's currency, the lira, has lost more than 40% of its value. on monday, the lira hit a new all time low versus the u.s. dollar. ripple effects from the turkey -- turkish economic crisis are being felt across the globe in

part because turkey relied heavily on foreign lending especially from european banks. the crisis is coming as tension is escalating between washington and ankara. last week president trump raisid new tatariffs on turkish metal exports.s. the u.s. is also pressuring turkey to release an american missionary named andrew brunson who was one of thousands of people in turkey detained after a failed coup in 2016. in yemen, thousands of mourners gathered in the city of saada monday for funerals of the 51 people, including 40 children,n, who were killed in an n air stre on a schchool bus lastst week. the airstrike was rrrried ouby e u.s.-bked saudled alition. imag posted line sugst a u.s. built mark-82 bomb was usus in theirirstrike. mourners decried the attack on school children. >> the crimes that were committed by the coalition against children were unprecedented crimes that have never happened before.

crimes that will not be forgiven by history or humanity of a crime that has never happened to six,eefore, not the indians, nor the bengals. committed by the dirty hands against the children of yemen. amy: we will have more on yemen later in the broadcast. in london, at least three people were injured today when a car drove into a security barrier outside the house of parliament. the driver of the car has been arrested on suspicion of terrorism offenses. president trump has signed a record-setting $716 billion military spending bill. that's a $82 billion increase over the current year. president trump signed it during a visit to fort drum in new york. pres. trump: we got $700 billion in next year already approved we have 716 billion dollars to give you the finest planes and ships

and tanks and m missiles anywhee on earth. nobody makes some luck we do. and very, very far distant in this case, jobs are very important in all cases, but in this case, military might is more important even jobs. amy: the bill includes over $21 billion for nuclear weapons, including $65 million for a new submarine-launched, low-yield nuclear weapon. the bill also allocates money for trump's proposed military parade. the official title of the defense military spending bill is the john s mccain national defense authorization act for fiscal year 2019. a president trump made no reference to mccain. he is been a vocal critic of the administration during his remarks. , he is notif mccain a warar hero, he is a w war hero because he was captured. i like people that weren't captured. in immigration news, a review by

the state of virginia has confirmed immigrant teenagers were strapped to chairs and had mesh bags placed over their heads while being held at the shenandoah valley juvenile center. but the state concluded this harsh treatment did not meet the state's legal threshold of abuse or neglelect. the state review came after the associated press revealed in june that children as young as 14 said they were beaten while handcuffed and locked up for long periods in solitary confinement, left nude and shivering in concrete cells. white house senior advisor stephehen miller is facing publc criticism from his own family for his hard-line anti-immigrant views. miller's uncle wrote an op-ed in politico on monday calling his nephew an "immigration hypocrite" for pushing for the muslim travel ban, the radical decrease in refugees and the separation of migrant children from their parents at the border. miller's uncle dr. david glosser wrote -- "if my nephew's ideas on

immigration had been in force a century ago, our family would have been wiped out." the doctor went on to describe how miller's family managed to come to the united states before the america first nativists of the day closed u.s. borders to jewish refugees. the outgoing united nations human rights commissioner has criticized president trump's attacks on the media. zeid ra'ad al-hussein said trump's description of the media as the enemy of the people is "very close to incitement to violence." meanwhile, more than 200 newspapers in the united states are planning to run editorials on thursday to decry trump's attacks on the press. in california, a firefighter from utah died on monday while battling the massive mendocino complex fire, the largest wildfire in recorded california history. the mendocino fire has now scorched 328,000 acres and destroyed 13139 homes. the democratic national

committee is facing criticism fromom climate activiststs aftee dnc c essentially lifteded a ban fossil fuel l company donations. dnc chair tom perez introduced the measure saying the party wants to "support fossil fuel workers" a new poll by gallup shows more democrats now have a more positive view of socialism than capitalism. 57% of those polled said they have a positive attitude toward socialism, just 47% said the same about capitalism. in news from washington, fbi deputy assistant director peter strzok has become the third high ranking fbi official fired since trump's inauguration. strzok had faced months of republic criticism after the publication of messages he wrote in 2016 criticizing then-candidate donald trump. strzok has been involved in the fbi investigation of hillalary clinton's emails and robert mueller's probe into russian meddling in the 2016 election.

the state of nebraska is scheduled to carry out its first execution in more than 20 years today. carey dean moore is set to be killed using a three-drug cocktail that includes fentanyl , which has never been used before in an execution. on friday, a federal judge rejected a move by a german pharmaceutical company to block the killing. more than 60,000 opponents of the death penalty have also signed a petition urging nebrbraska's governoror to callf the execution. for the second time this year, facebook has taken down the page of the latin american broadcaster telesur english without any explanation. in a statement telesur said -- , "this is an alarming development in light of the recent shutting down of pages that don't fit a mainstream narrative." telesur is an internationanal broadcaster that received funding from the governments of venezuela, cuba, nicaragua, uruguay, and bolivia. last week, facebook also temporarily tookok down another page related to venezuela, the

page for the news outline venezuela analysis. and it's primary day in connecticut, minnesota, vermont, and wisconsin. in vermont, christine hallquist is attempting to make history by becoming the first transgender major party gugubernatorial nominee in u.s. history. she is running in the democratic primary for governor in vermont. in minnesota, there are several closely watched primaries including one for al franken's old senate seat. senator tina smith, who was appointed to fill franken's seat, is running in the democratic primary against richard painter, a former white house ethics lawyer under president george w. bush. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we begin today's show with the historic verdict in a lawsuit against u.s. agribusiness giant monsanto. in a groundbreaking decision, a juryry in california has ordered monsanto to pay $289 million in

damages to a school groundskeeper who developed cancer after regularly using the weed killer roundup. the 46-year-old man, dewayne johnson, has non-hodgkin's lymphoma. doctors say he is unlikely to live past 2020. judge suzanne ramos bolanos read the jury's verdict. >> would a reasonable manufacture, distributor, or seller under the same or similar circumstances have warned of the danger or instructed on the safe use of roundup pro or ranger pro? answer, yes will stop was monsanto's failure to warn a substantial factor in causing harm to mr. johnson? answer, yes. claim of damages. what are mr. johnson's damages? , $819,882.32.loss

loss, 1,000,004 hundred $33,327. loss, $4economic million. loss, $33 economic million. with regard to punitive damages. did you find by clear and convincing evidence that monsanto acted with malice or oppression in the conduct upon which youu base your finding of liability in favor of mr. johnson? answer, yes. amy: the jury at san francisco's superior court of california deliberated for three days before finding monsanto had failed to warn johnson and other consumers of the cancer risks posed by its weed killers. johnson's was the first lawsuit to go to trial alleging glyphosate causes cancer.

filed in 2016, it was fast-tracked for trial due to the severity of johnson's cancer. he spopoke after the verdictctas delivered. a lot osupppporand a loof thank youndnd a l ofrayer and lot ofverythin, ju ener from a t of peoe that i don't even kw. i'm glado be hertoelp with thisituationfter i lrned aout rndup and glyphose everytng, i'm glad tbe here to be le toelp. is causes w bigger an me hopelly, thithing wi start get the aention tt it needs to t t righso f fol can ma a good oice.. amy:ohnson's atrneys sa jurorsor the fst time re ab to see ternal cpany docuntnts pring thatonsanto has knn for decades that glypsate andoundup cld cause ncer. monsantoto is a unit of the multinational pharmaceutical company bayer a now faces momore than similar lawawsuits across e 505000 united statates. for more on friday's verdict, we

are joined by brent wisner, the lead trial counsel for dewayne lee johnson in his lawsuit against monsanto. welcome to democracy n now! can you first respond to this historic verdict? a jury almost a warning your as thet $300 m million welcome he may be in the last years of his life. >> good morning. this verdict is without question truly historic. what mr. johnson has done taking on this massive corporation, the courage, the tenacity, and the willingness to speak out against what he believed was a real problem is truly spectacular. this jury heard it. this verdict is groundbreaking, presidential. this something that i think monsanto and its shareholders, particularly at bayer, are hearing loud and clear and realizing that they y have a problem with this product and they have to start warning people that it can cause cancer. amy: 12 us his story test tell

us troy lee johnson's story. >> he is an amazing man. he started working at the school district in 2012. he was asked of promoted. running around the schoolmail. as part of that job, he was spring roundup on these various school campuses as part of the school district. he would spray upwards of 150 gallons a day trying to handle the we situation. he met time he was exposed repeatedly. and prior to that, he a perfect skin. after that he started developing these tumors on his skin. they did not know what it was at first and they discovered it was a rare type of non-hodgkin's lymphoma that manifest in the skin. in the cancer got worse. they got worse. mr. johnson actually reached out to monsanto while he was spring to ask them, hey, is there a connection between this product

in the cancer i'm getting? they said they would call him back and they did not. then he called back a second time and he continued to spray, waiting to here back from monsanto and i never called. his we learned is that cancer, while he was spring, it transformed, it went from a relatively controllable type of cancer to one that is essentially a death sentence. the fact that monsanto is never called him back in the fact they never warned him, deprived him of the ability to make an informed choice and mr. johnson, when he finally put two and two together, he called us up and we took it to trial and sort of history was made. the i want to read statement of monsanto. we reached out to the agribusiness giant to join us but they were not available. they do provide us a statement that said they plan to appeal the verdict, and insisisted glypyphosate does not cause cancer, and did not cause wayne dewayne johnson's cancer. this is the statement from monsanto vice president scott partridge who said "we are

sympathetic to mr. johnson and his family. today's decision does not change the fact that more than 800 scientific studies and reviews -- and conclusions by the u.s. environmental protection agency, the u.s. national institutes of health and regulatory authorities around the world -- support the fact that glyphosate does not cause cancer, and did not cause mr. johnson's cancer. we will appeal this decision and continue to vigorously defend this product, which has a 40-year history of safe use and continues to be a vital, effective, and safe tool foror farmers and others." your response that, brent wisner? >> there are really three points worth mentioning. the first is this idea that there i is 800 studies that test roundupp and sega to save is jut a fabrication. the studies he is talking about are largely not related to cancer. we're talking about skin irriritation, eye irritation. sore talking about 20 or studies. six or seven of them are in humans and the rest are in

animals. those studies are almost completely positive. onehat is just fact number incorrect. the second thing that is really important is this idea it hahasa 40 year historory of safety. almost absbsent from t the conversation i is that for the fifirst 20 yearsrs, roundup was asked approved babased on fraud. it was coming from a laboratory that has been known -- people were indicteted, people went to jail. thatat was a a former momonsanto employee. his idea t that it has a 40 year record of safety, glosses over 20 years of fraud. the last thing is, and this is importrtant, mr. partrididge dos not say roundndup does not cause cancncer, he says glyphosate. he knows that glyphosate is different than roundup. glglyphosate i is part of round, but roundup is a combined prproduct of glyphososate plus a bunch of other chemicals that make glyphosate significantly more potent. one of the things the jury is really focused on in this case,

is there is a synergistic effect of the glyphosate and the other chemicals. in the simple fact is, monsanto has never tested the course images in the of the combined -- personages sunday of the combined product. we have internal documents that say we do not want to look at this issue because we are afraid of what we will see. in thehe jury heard all of this and they rejected this idea that it is as a product, that it does not cause cancer. they said not only does it cause cancer, but monsanto acted with malice in doing so. i think that is really important. amy: what to thesese internal documentnts show? this is s extremely significant given how widespread roundup is around the world, both h monsano and the people who use it here in the united states are already 5000 lawsuits behind this one. >> there is a lot of documents. what they really show is sort of thatpant corporate culture

has no interest in looking at whether or not their product is safe. but have an interest in attacking sites this does not suit their business agenda. that is what we see. when a bad study comes out, the males that circulate among monsanto employs is, how do we combat this? had we fight this? how do we take this person out? a name within monsanto, it is called "freedom to operate." they have a budget assigned to this particular action. it is shows without question, at least starting 20 years ago, their productnown can cause cancer. and they have gone out of their way to ignore it and/or fight any signs that suggest a link. we see this hahappening amongst all the independent scientists that it looked at this. there are hundreds of f them who look at this and say, you have a problem here. instead of doing something about it, monsanto sibley says, let's take away their funding or go

after the university or let's put political or scientific pressure on ththe scientist to make them back off. a lot of scientists willing first got involved in this litigation said, listen, i think it causes cancer, but i don't want to fight monsanto. they are bullies. that is what the documents show. amy: brent wisner, the division between the compensatory and the punitive damages, can you explain what exactly the jury verdict means? >> sure. the compensatory damages are really what -- the amount of money would take to make mr. johnson and his family whole. i don't know how you pay for pain associate with the type of cancer he has, but that is what the jury came up with. that was around $40 million. the punitive damages are not really about mr. johnson. they are about monsanto. they are about looking at what monsanto has done and asking, dodoes that need to be punished?

and if so, what is the amount of money to not only punish monsanto, but to deter future wrongful conduct? when i was talking to the jury and our closing argument, i told them this was a chance to send a message to monsanto that this was a chance to actually maybe even change the world. i think that resonated with the jurors because they saw that if they could make monsanto pay a certain amount of money, that it actually might lead to future correct conduct. so the n next personon that cals monsanto or uses roundup can make that decision with an informed choice. no one is saying it should be banned. no one is saying should take up the market. peoplele still smoke sigrid's today, right? but they smoke them knowing the risk. that is all we''re asking is for montes -- monsanto to disclose the risks and warned. if they can do that, they concert taking steps in the right direction. amy: doesn't the federal government play a role here? why is this approved?

that is a good question. the answer is disturbing. some of the evidence we showed the jury about monsanto was a very kind of unhealthy and kind of creepy relationship between monsanto and the regulators at the epa. we have text messages, you know conversations where various epa employees are actually going out otherir way to stop agencies from investigating this issue. going out of their way to gain .pproval from monsanto and that is disturbing. the regulators are supposed to be detached. they're supposed to be doing an objective and honest assessment. this regulatory epa did not do that. in fact, they convened a scientific advisory panel to critique with the epa was doing. these independent scientists unanimously agreed on one fact, that the epa was not following

its guidelines. so the reason the why the epa is getting monsanto special treatment is actually unknown, but there is a lot of s smoke ad i i suspect there e is a fire ad the department of justice has actually opened an investigation into this exact issue, although i am not holding my breath that we will see the fruits of that investigation under this current a administration. amy: there's a difference between the u.s. government and the french government. the french government promised glyphosate would be banned by 2021 for maine uses an for all uses in five years. >> germany is taking a similar approach will stop austria. all host of european countries are saying we do not agree with our european regulators. the research on cancer and they're taking a lot of important steps to actually ban this product in europe. if that happens, then you would have to think that the u.s. would at least listen to this outcry. again, i'm not holding my breath

with the current a administration. amy: and the issue of rollingg back regulations them even more than they have been. >> that's right. that is really a problem. there is an incentive to use this stuff because it helps you sell more crops. it is not like does the synergy between the financial interest in the safety interest are not aligned here and the problem is the people who are paying for the pesticides are usually not the people spraying them so we have a lot of immigrant workers, particularly in california, who are out there sprang this stuff and not being told about the risks, not given proper precautions. they're being marginalized by the legal system because of their immimigration status. itit is a real public health crisis and something that i think the epa needs to step in and dodo something about. calilifornia has taken steps, te state of california has determined it is a substance known to cause cancer. they're having a fairly protracted legal battle with monsananto, trying to force monsanto to warn.

but that is sort of a legal fight i hope california will rebel on. amy: brent wisner, thank you for being with us, attorney and lead trial counsel for dewayne lee johnson. he developed cancer after regularly using roundup weed killer at a school. a jury has just awarded him 289 million dollars in damages. when we come back, we're going to speak with the author of the book "whitewash: the story of a weed killer, cancer and the corruption of science." then we go to yemen where scores of funerals are being held, 40 schoolchildren were killed in the u.s.-backed saudi bombing of a school bus. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we are looking at friday's historic verdict in a lawsuit

against t monsanto in a groundbreaking decision a jury in california o ordered one cenr to pay $289 million in damages to a school groundskeeper who developed cancer after regularly using roundup weed killer on the school on's. the 46-year-old man, dewayne johnson, has non-hodgkin's lymphoma. doctors say he is unlikely to live past 2020. we just spoke with the lead attorney in the case, now we're going to kansas city, missouri, were we are joined by carey gillam veteran investigative , a journalist, author of "whitewash: the story of a weed killer, cancer and the corruption of science." she is covered corporate america for 25 years, now research director for u.s. right to know. you write it is in the air we breathe, our water, our soil, and even in our own bodies. known as monsanto's roundup by consumers and glyphosate + just,

the world's most popular weed killer is used everywhere from backyard gardens to golf courses to millions of acres of farmland. carey gillam, what does this historic verdict mean for this chemical? thank you and good morning. i think it is historic, as brent mentioned. this vindicates really years and years, decades, of independent scientific work studying this chemical in this herbicide. we went from about 40 million pounds of glyphosate used in the 1990's to close to 300 million unitedused now w in the states. this is the most widely used when killer ever in the history of the world. and this is primarily because monsanto has spent so much time and effort marketing this to be used in so many different ways and to be used so pervasively in food production.

of course, the main selling point has been that it is so very safe, so much safer than any other herbicide out there. safe enough to convince regulators to allow levelscreasingly higher of this pesticide in our food. as you mentioned, it is, evidence shows as it is richly found in our water, in our food come in our soil, in our air. u.s. scientists have even documented it coming down as rainfall. amy: so the use of this, in the last minutes that brent was there was on, he talked about, for example, immigrant workers that deal with this. in california, how many people, how many farmworkers are exposed to this that though can they bring lawsuits when they get sick? what about undocumented workers? >> right. there are thousands of people around the united states,

obviously, who have already file ints, thousands more waiting the wings, i'm told, from all of the different attorneys i've talked to around the country. there are people around the world who are very concerned as well from farmworkers in argentina who have already tried to sue monsanto. they've had trouble in u.s. courts bringing one center to account for what they have alleged are birth affects in their children because of their exposure to glyphosate and roundup. there are people in europe who are similarly concerned and trying to move forward on litigation. i think the world has really woken up to this problem just in the last several years. i have been tracking it since the late 1990's and through the 2000's. that was my job, really come at reuters to cover this company and its profit stream, its business model, and of course roundup has been a huge part of monsanto's business model,

billions of dollars in revenue every year tied not just to the chemical, but the gmo seeds that monsanto designs specifically to encourage the use of roundup. roundup ready seeds and roundup herbicide meant billions and billions of dollars for monsanto , has been, and bayer hoping to continue that revenue stream. has grown over the decades, the problems in the evidence has mounted, both for environmental concerns and human health concerns. amy: in june 2017, reuters ran a story headlined "cancer agency left in the dark over glyphosate evidence" and claimed the world health organization's cancer agency says a common weed killer is 'probably carcinogenic.' the scientist leading that review knew of fresh data showing no cancer link -- but he never mentioned it and the agency did not take it into account."

bad story was reported by kate kelland, who you have said has a history of cozy relations with a group partly funded by agrichemical company interests. talk about that report. i was just quoting it, not saying it was true, and the flaws you found with it. criticizew, i hate to -- i spent most of my time at reuters. this was just a deeply flawed the story and a really good example of fake news, of orchestrated fake news. how this came down was this was information that monsanto and/or , coworkers, you might say, fed to kate kelland through the science media center. they try defeated two other journalists as well. others turn it down. effectively, this was a deposition by aaron blair who chaired the working group of the

international agency for research on cancer that looked at glyphosate. this was his deposition. it had not been filed in court so it was not available for public viewing. it was not part of the docket. one center gave it to kate and gave her basically their view of it -- monsanto gave it to kate and gave her basically their view of it. that aaron blair know this research and withheld it and had they known, they would have come up with a different classification. now i also had the deposition and it could see, as anybody could from reading the deposition, that is not what is said at all. monsanto'snt with spin, so to speak, wrote the story and did not provide a link to the document, did not provided anywhere at all, falsely claimed it was a court document -- which it really wasn't. it wasn't filed or publicly available in court at all. and then went on to quote two

scientists who are known to be associated in consulting with the agrichemical industry full steps you quoted them and said they were independent. so her story got picked up around the world by media and was picked up by u.s. lawmakers and others and said, oh, look at this terrible situation that happened with -- this is a politically motivated -- john amy:nda explain what that is. >> the international agency for research on cancer. it is part of the world health organization. these are elite an independent cancer scientists who come together to look at literature, toxicology, and epidemiology, angela get different substances and to classify them as to the carcinogenicity. amy: why is roundup allowed in the united states?

art roundup soybeans, for example, -- crops are made to work with this roundup pesticide. >> right. monsanto introduced glyphosate to the world in 1974, patented it, and enjoyed quite a bit of success because it was a very effective herbicide, killed weeds very quickly and monsanto said it was so much s ser than her herbicides on the market. inin the patent wawas expiring n the year 2000. somemee center came up with a brilliant t strategy, whwhich ws let's genetically alter, let'ss engineer spepecial crorops thatn be sprayeded directly ovover thp with glyphosate a and they y w't die, butut the weeds w will. it was i ingenious. it made farming so much easier for farmers who have to really keke their field very clean of weeds.

so it really was a great thing and farmers loved it. cropsto called these roundup-ready crops. the idea was farmer would buy the special seeds and they would spray the crops with roundup. monsanto would maintain its market share. it all worked great except for people in the environment because what happened was, as i said earlier, we went from about 40 million pounds a year of use in the 1990's to close to 300 million pounds a year now. globally, that went from 123 million pounds to almost 2 billion pounds. we are drenching our farming system in glyphosate and roundup. and that is what has really caused all of these problems, the overuse them and made is so ubiquitous that we can't escape it, that it is in our food and body and air and water.

it also is what drew so much research because it was so widely used. independent scientists really started studying it and looking at the impacts on human health and on environment will health. -- environment all help. they have found an array of problems. as brent said earlier, monsanto has not taken any of those concerns to heart will stop instead what they are try to do is just credit the scientists, harass the scientists, tried to arm twist regulators to deny this independent science and to only look at the industry science that declared it to be safe. it really has been, as i say in my book, i mean if relation of science. -- manipulation of science. even as we sit here talking, there are papers out there in published peer-reviewed journals that appear to be independent of monsanto that we know from the evidence in the documents that we have, that we know monsanto

had a hand in writing, even though they look like they are independent. and this is the term that has come to be associated now with monsanto, which is ghostwriting. we know there are papers out there in the published literature that regulators around the world have relied upon as being independent and authentic, and we know monsanto has ghost written them. we don't know how many more are out there. we know there are some, but god only knows how many might really be out there. amy: monsanto tried to discredit you, carey gillam, as you exposed monsanto? >> oh, yes. i am one of many journalists they have gone after. they've gone after people at "the new york times" and feel at surprise winners, journalists at magazines around the world. -- pulitzer prize winners, journalists and magazines around the world. they targeted one who uncovers

facts that are not beneficial to monsanto. , through freedom of information act request domestic record request, we have obtained documents from regulators and state universities and of course these internal monsanto documents that have come to light. you know, they really do show this ongoing decades -- i call it decades of deception. very strategic efforts by monsanto, others in the agrichemical industry, to own the science and to discredit anybody who tries to challenge them. amy: i want to thank you very much for being with us. we will continue to follow this story of thousands of lawsuits in the wings against monsanto after dewayne lee johnson was awarded close to $800 millioionn his lawsuit against monsanto aing roundup weed killer as groundskeeper at a school in

california. they don't predict he will live past 2020. carey gillam, veteran investigative journalist who has -- author of "whitewash: the story of a weed killer, cacancer and the cocorruption of f scien" when we come back, funerals are underway in yemen for more than 40 children who were killed in a in.-backed saudi bombing yemen. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: aretha franklin. according to news reports, the 76 roll singer is gravely ill and now in hospice care in her home city of detroit. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. as we continue to look at yemen, reportturn to a critical on what has been taking place in yemen right now. the bombing of a school bus. the bombing of a school bus. thousands of mourners gathered in the northern city for funerals of 51 people, including 40 children killed in

u.s.-backed saudi led coalition airstrike on a school bus last week. images posted online suggest a u.s. bomb was used in the bombing. the massacre of school boys between the ages of six and 11 was one of the worst attacks on children in history of yemen's brutal war. this is moussa abdullah who witnessed the bombing. the strike happened in the middle of the market and targeted a bus carrying children. our shops were open and the shoppers w were walking around s usual. all of those who died wewere residentnts, childreren, and shp owners. amamy: the childldren had spenee daday celebrating g the end ofof summer school by taking a fified trip to a cemetetery -- one of e last r remaining greenen spacesa gion devastated by war. video released by houthi med captures thehe school boysys laughingng and talking on the b. just hours later, mo o of the kidsds in e videdeo were dead.d. this is ssein huin tayeb whose e son ahmed was killed in the bombing. >> i was one of the first people

on the scene. as soon as i arrived with others wanting to help out, we figured we had to quickly nurse the wounded because there was chaos. people were running over bodies and shouting. there was a scary situation. very scary. may god give us s patience from his strength. >> to define your children here? lifting people, i lifted the body and found it was ahmed's face. he w was my son. amy: u.n. sesecretary-geneneral antonio o terres has condemned the e air strike, calling for rn indepeent investation into the deadly attack. saudi arabia said it would launch its own investigation, climbing it was a legitimate military operation. u.s. defense secretary james mattis said sunday he is sending a three-star general to riyadh to assist the saudi investigation. the bombing campaign has reviewed the been accused of committing war crimes by targeting civilians. we're going out to ease lansing, michigan come to speak with shireen al-deimi, yemeni scholar

and activist assistant professor , at michigan state university. her latest piece for in these times is headlined "fine print in defense bill acknowledges u.s.-backed war in yemen w willo on indefininitely." we welcome you back to democracy now! talk about this bombing, where it was, who was killed. >> good morning. latest string,e unfortunate, really brutal attacks on civilians in yemen. it is not the worst of its kind in terms of the numbers of people killed, but certainly because all of the desk 40 out of the 51 people killed were children. it really is just an extreme form of the saudi-led coalition bombing in yemen. here were these kids on a hool trtrip,excited, wh footage we see them laughingg andnd really bebeing excitited. were notts said they able to sleeeep becauau they wee so excited. therarare goin to o cemetery

just to bebeble to enjnjoy some timeme outside. as the bus entereded busy mamarket, it was tgeted by the saudi-led coaliti and most of these chiren were k killed. wewe know the u.u.s. is part o e saudi-led coalition, so we arere in fact reresponsible, j just as muchch as the saududis are in te bombing of the shona. amy: explain what has happened since. you have the u.n. calling for an independent investigation, saudi arabiaia, that killed them,, saying, no. saudi arabia backed by the united states. saying heneral mattis is sending a general to saudi arabia to help with the investigation. >> well, it is just preposterous to think they are continuously allowed to investigate their own crimes. we assume e this committee that put together and the kinds of investigations they have done in the past. this is done the first massacre in yemen. two years ago they killed 120

people in a market. the e also killed 140 momournern a funeral hall. here arengle day airstrikeses and casualtlties ad civivilians who have beeeen kill byby saudi havave an led airsts. they essentially have of salt themselves of al wrongdoing every time they have investigated themselves. of course they would. who would trust a criminal to investigate his or her own crimes? for the u.s. to say we're going to send a general, well, the u.s. is also part of the coalition that is targeted civilianss since the war started 3.5 years ago. what yemeni state is an independent investigation, which has been put forward in the u.n. twice and has been rejected by the saudi-led coalition and the u.s. has provided cover for the saudi led coalition at the u.n.. we needed independent investigation but the saudis has admitted they targeted the bus and said it was a legitimate

target. their character as the children inside the bus as people who are responsible for launching missiles into saudi arabia. and the spokesperson of the saudi-led coalition went on to say those who launched missiles into saudi arabia will get what they deserve. they have admitted they targeted the bus and characterized those children as missile launchers. what is there to investigate? we know who's the only party capable of committing the actions, which is the saudi have an led coalition. we know they have done this over and over again. what would an investigation even prove that we don't already know? the spokesperson for the saudi led coalition saying -- "no, this is not children in the bus. we do have high standard measures for targeting." shireen al-deimi, what d does te u.s. military buildup president trump signed off on yesterday at fort drum, new york, this unprecedented bill,

record-setting $716 billion military spending bill, $82 billion above the current year, say about yemen? congress has twice tried to invoke the war par resolution to try to extricate the u.s. from yemen, and commerce passed a resolution back in december of u.s.year acknowledging the is at war in yemen without congressional approval. so now here we have this defense bill that just got past. some senators and congress people have managed to insert some yemen provisions that are meant to limit u.s. military spending on refueling missions in yemen. we know the saudi have an led mimilitary -- saudi have an n d coalitioion relies on ththe was mililitary to refuel the jets midair.. this is s just one of ththe many seservices the u.s.s. provides r

the e saudi coalition. with the bill says this money cannot be used toward midair refueling, but when you look at the language, it allows for some exceptions. assesses secretary of state issue a waiver and itt says thee midair refueling missiononcan occur r as long as the saudis ad emiratis show their taking certain actions to prevent civilian casuaualties. ththis is vague language that essentially provides a loophole for using the military spending toward midair refueling and in essence a contradicts congress' earlier stance of saying we are in yemen, this is not authorized in congress, but here we are allowing midair refueling under certain conditions, which again, does nothing to protect the yemeni citizens from saudi bombs, u.s. -- the u.s. sold bombs to the saudi's. amy: i want to turn to an investigation that found the u.s.-backed saududi coalition

there has repeatedly cut secret deals with al qaeda in yemen. even paying its fighters to retreat from towns or join the coalition. the ap i investigation accccusee united states of being essentially alive witith -- aligned with al qaeda in the fight against the who the rebels, despite clamming to be fighting al qaeda in the region. for more, we're joined in cairo, egypt, by maggie michael, one of the three reporters for the associated press who broke this .tory explain what you found, maggie. thee worked on examining emirati campaign against terrorism in southern yemen repeatedly over the past year since 2015. s declared victory after victory, liberating cities from the group without really telling

us how this happened. we looked closely into different and in three of these officials,we found witnesses, residents, that there was no actual fight on the ground. and what happened is the militants pulled out days and months and weeks before the campaign started. they pulled out leaving the city without a any fight will stop ad then the emirati's to play forces and declared victory. the pentagon joins and says we have helped and assisted the emiratis with a small force on the ground to defefeat al qaeda. amy: this is a tribal leader a mediator speaking in a video that accompanies your says hit a press report.

>> the americans do o everything and morere about w what we know. they knew about the mediations, step-by-step, one by one, and they were turning a blind eye. amy: maggie michelle, can you expand who he is and what he is saying? explain michael, canoe who he is s and what he e is sa? >> in the past, he was fighting next to some of those in afghanistan. and theback to yemen government recruited to fight the south in this five between the north and the south, he played different roles. at the very end when we interviewed him, we found out he was feeding the americans information about the movements of al qaeda, about the deals going on.

this area has very active u.s. drone activity. the drones don't leave the sky. where he wasdays living, there were no strikes. that is the christian we raised the shake and he said that it was the surprise of the markets know everything. we interviewed travel mediators and one of them hosted leaders inside his form and he held a farewell dinner before they left. amy: "the washington times" reports pentagon officials denied u.s. supported allies bribed, or recruited al qaeda members in yeme. pentagon spokesman colonel rob manning said -- "that is patently false. we do not pay al qaeda, we kill al qaeda." maggie michael?

>> this is the line of the united states along with the emiratis. yesterday the emirati officials held a press conference denying that any agreement or deals with al qaeda. but on the ground, we have so many witnesses and people who were involved in this meeting, including the travel mediator who was involved with a meeting between the emiratis and al qaeda with a group -- were they agreed for money to withdraw. the denials do not -- do not give more information, just general denial. amy: maggie, can you respond to the killing that we were just talking about, the u.s.-backed saudi bombing of this school bus come a 40 0 school children killed, now there are thousands of people going to funerals in yemen, 51 people overall killed. how does this fit into the picture that you have found and your investigation?

>> what is very hard to determine in yemen is what the children were doing. -- and 2015. we know the saudi debt coalition has bombed civilian targets all the time. markets, hospitals, schools. this is not a surprise. arewe also know the houthis acactively recruititing the chin and then send emem to thfronont nes. marks herere are not t answered yetet, whatere ee childrdrenoing at the time? there are no schools right now at yemen. there are nono buses duringg children frorom school to th house. this is a luxury. chilildren were vivisiting a cemetery, and atat is whe ththey omote e thwhole nonoon of jihad and mamartyr his him. , the saudi i have an leled coalition n is blamed fofr killing g the civiliaians and ts -- b been ongoing without any

no questionn about it. it in the same time, we have a look at the other side of the picture and see what the houthis were doing w with the e childre. amy: shireen al-deimi, your final comment on this latest killing, the u.s. bomb that was used in the documentation of that, and what u.s. congress is doing about this? because there are moves there to get out of supporting the saudi and uae attacks on yememen. >> to quickly respond to what your guest just said, doesn't really matter what the children were doing. they were children. they were in summer school. for the saudi happened led coalition to bombed a bus full of children is a war crime regardless of what the children were doing. to talk about really what the u.s. intervention in yeme e loos like, we know what it looks like. we know the devastation it has caused. yemen is falling and all of the services have been failing

system 130,000 children died in 2016 and 2017 alone of starvation and preventable diseases such as cholera. what we need from the senate and from congress right now is to continue to push toward ending the u.s. involvement in yemen, given how much the saudis and ,miratis rely on u.s. support we know that cannot continue to wage war on yemen without extensive u.s. assistance. congress needs to act quickly to continue to introduce resolutions in the senate and and the housese to push the u.s. out of yemen. amy: i want to thank you both for being with us, shireen al-deimi, yemeni scholar and activiststan assistatant profesr now at michigan state university. and maggie michael, ap reported, speaking to us from cairo, egypt. this is democracy now!

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a - i guess a smsmall-town mayor is sort of like a a community orgaganizer, except that you hahave actual responsibilities. - he worked as a community organizer. what?? (man) - you have to go t through life withth more than just passion for change-- you need a strategy. and your plan better include voting. you see, change requires more than righteous anger.